So all hopes were hinged on that region when, suddenly, Tashi  R Ghale, a businessman and hobbyist photographer, came across some snapshots of what looked like a fuzzy, overgrown tomcat in his native Manang in 2012; the photos were taken by one of his camera traps that had been set up to monitor snow leopards. Surely, if the snaps proved to be that of the elusive Pallas’s cat, they would make the cat the first new mammal to be discovered in Nepal in many years. But back then, Ghale did not think much about the images.  

As if by a stroke of luck, Ghale captured the cat on his camera again. This time around, on December 26, 2013. One of his camera traps, also known as an automatic infrared sensor camera, because it uses infrared sensors to identify and capture images of moving objects, had in it images of what looked like the feline he had captured a year back. Unable to recognise the species, he uploaded the images on Facebook. “I didn’t know what species it was the first time I saw the images. So I decided to share it with experts,” says Ghale.  

Ganga Ram Regmi, an ecologist who has also studied snow leopards, recognised the images as that of the Pallas’s cat, popularly known as manul. These cats are classified as ‘near-threatened’ in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species because they are hunted for their coat of rich, grizzly fur and their habitat is shrinking, primarily due to human interference. Now that they have been discovered in Nepal, the onus for protecting this vanishing species and preserving its habitat lies with Nepalis.

The Pallas’s cat borrows its name from the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas, who was the first person to describe the feline found in the grasslands and mountains of Central Asia, in 1776. It is a living fossil that, along with the extinct Martelli’s cat, is considered to be among the first two modern cats to have evolved from the Pseudaelurus, a species of prehistoric cats—long, slender and short-legged, that roamed modern-day Europe, Asia and North America in the Miocene period around 20 million years ago. Between 46 to 65 centimetres long, these animals weigh between 2.5 to 4.5 kg and have a 21-31 cm-long tail. The cats are covered in dense, ochre fur and have dark vertical bars on the torso and forelegs, black rings on the tail and dark spots on the forehead. But their most distinctive feature is their white cheeks, with narrow black stripes running from the corners of the eyes.

Presently, these cats are mostly distributed across the Central Asian steppes and are found in countries like Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and in Western China. Shy, solitary and mysterious in nature, they hunt during the twilight hours, feeding on mountain voles, birds and pikas—small, tailless mammals found in the mountains. Although experts had said that the Pallas’s cat must have once dwelled in the Himalayan belt, they had already considered the fuzzy creature extinct in these parts. Until it was photographed in Pakistan and Bhutan. But what makes its sighting in Nepal even more significant is that it was photographed in regions at altitudes of around 5,000 metres, the highest ever for the animal. And experts say that the rugged and inaccessible niches of the Himalayan region might prove to be a better habitat for the cat as opposed to the flat steppes. “It’s easy to hunt these cats in the steppes, where there is nothing but a flat expanse of land for miles around you. There is, in fact, a whole tradition built around hunting them for their furs in those places. But things are different here. The arid mountainous region, with its sparse vegetation, provides not just the perfect camouflage for the cat, its remoteness and rocky landscape mean the creature can be left undisturbed if we deter human encroachment in the region, “says   Rinzin Phunjok Lama, a conservation expert.

The cat’s discovery in the Upper Manang region provided an opportunity for Ghale, Regmi and their friends from  the Global Pallas’s Cat Working Group—including Rinzin Phunjok Lama (member and project coordinator), Madan K Suwal (GIS specialist) and Paras Bikam Singh—to come together to better understand this elusive animal. With cash and in-kind help from the Mohamed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Rufford Foundation-UK and The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, and  in coordination with the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC/ACAP), they started their pilot study on the animal in December 2014.

Their pilot study, which ended on June 6, focused on understanding the ecological niche, food habits, survival threats and conservation priorities for this species in Nepal’s Himalayas, along with the socio-economic analysis of the people living in its habitat.

“Since the cat shares its habitat with other carnivores like the snow leopard, red fox and feral dogs, it is interesting to understand how multiple carnivores compete and co-exist in such an arid climate,” says Regmi. But while they have not been able to single out any single apex predator as a threat to the cat, they have come to the conclusion that its habitat is being threatened by human interference.

“While analysing the camera trap images, we came across numerous images of yaks and cattle grazing in and around the cat’s habitat. But because very few people have encountered the cat, we have come to the conclusion that habitat degradation, and not hunting as some like to assume, is currently the major threat to the species’ existence in that region,” says Lama.

There are other threats as well. Increasing temperatures in the mountains, prompted by climate change, have also made things difficult for this feline.

“Pikas, which form the major source of the cat’s diet, are diminishing in number, primarily because of the changing climate,” says Lama.

“That the cat has been found in Nepal is exciting news. But now the efforts should go towards protecting them. It is important that we do more research on the cat and spread awareness to halt its decline. Along with stopping human encroachment in the region, we also need to protect the food chain,” says Ghale.